Bruce Poliquin Requests New Election In Second District Race

Congressman Bruce Poliquin is asking for a new election, after losing his seat to Jared Golden in a ranked-choice voting runoff.

Centralmaine.com reports Poliquin filed a motion late Tuesday in federal court, asking for a new election. It's the latest bid in an ongoing legal battle that's called the constitutionality of ranked choice voting into question. This latest motion was filed after a judge denied Poliquin's request for a temporary restraining order to halt the ranked choice tabulation.

The suit is still seeking a preliminary injunction, which would halt the certification of election results. But, in the event that the injunction isn't granted, would call for a new election to replace the current results.

This follows a request by Congressman Poliquin for a recount of the ranked choice ballots. Secretary of State Matt Dunlap responded to that request by saying that, since the results showed a more than 1,000 vote margin between candidates, Poliquin would have to cover the costs of the recount. The official election results showed Bruce Poliquin with 138,931 votes and Jared Golden with 142,440.